And not because I disagree with the celebrated author, journalist and all-around natural foods guru and activist. It’s simply because, as a journalist myself, it’s my duty to get him to say things that aren’t part of his PR campaign, to reconsider his stances on any number of issues and to otherwise hold him accountable for any hypocrisies and discrepancies in his message.

Of course, that’s a fool’s errand when you’re talking about someone like Pollan, whom Time magazine listed as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2010, and whose New York Times bestselling books, “In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” have changed the way we talk (and think) about food over the past few years. Pollan’s message is both practiced and lean, slick yet straightforward. And his belief in honest, timeworn eating practices is as earnest as it gets.

So without repeating anything from my Denver Post profile of Pollan, and in advance of his Paramount Theatre appearance on Feb. 29, here are some raw scraps from our phone interview. They shed a bit more light on Pollan’s personality, including what he thinks of Denver fast-casual giant Chipotle, his favorite restaurants and his latest home-based concoctions.